Shahneel Ijaz 
An away day is not cheap. A return train from Liverpool to London booked late can cost more than the match ticket, the ticket itself is capped at £30 for Premier League away fans but rarely comes with a cheap pint, and the time the day is done a supporter has spent a figure they would rather not add up. The one thing that should not add to that bill is the shirt on your back. Adult replica shirts now cost up to £90, with ten Premier League clubs charging £80 or more, and for a supporter who goes to twenty away games a season the shirt is the easiest place to save money. This is a practical guide to finding cheap football jerseys that will survive the trains, the terraces and the washing machine.
The away-day shirt is a different product
Start being honest about what the shirt has to do. It will be worn under a jacket in February and over a T-shirt in August. It will be sat on, spilled on, rained on and washed forty times. It will be seen at a distance of fifty yards people who are mostly looking at the pitch. Nobody in the away end at Bournemouth is checking the weave of your fabric. The shirt that suits this life is a fan-version replica in a sensible fit, not a £115 player-issue shirt cut for someone who runs eleven kilometres a match.
Last season’s shirt is this season’s bargain
The single best trick is patience. The moment a club launches its new home kit, the previous season’s design is discounted a third to a half, and away and third kits go further. A supporter who bought Liverpool’s 2025/26 shirt in the summer of 2026 paid a fraction of what it cost the summer before, and nobody in the away end can tell the difference at a glance, because the club colours do not change. If you can live one season behind the launch cycle, you can halve your shirt costs for the rest of your life.
Away and third kits are cheaper, and better for away days
There is a practical case for buying the change kits. They are discounted sooner because they sell in smaller numbers, and they are often the more interesting designs. They are also, in some grounds, the sensible choice: a red shirt in the away end at a red-shirted club is fine, but a distinctive away colour marks you out as a visiting supporter to stewards and to your own group, which is useful when the concourse is packed.
Retro shirts and reissues
For many travelling supporters the answer is not to buy the current shirt at all. A retro design from the club’s history, the 1989 Liverpool pattern, the 2005 Reebok, the 1977 Umbro, is often cheaper than the current kit, never goes out of date and says more about you than the newest release. Licensed reissues from the major brands and from specialist retro makers are widely available, and the second-hand market for originals is enormous if you are willing to accept a faded sponsor.
Independent retailers and fan-version replicas
The cheapest route is the independent online retailer selling fan-version replicas for £20 to £30, often shipped from overseas in ten to fifteen working days. The quality ranges from very good to poor, and the buyer has to do the work: look for real product photographs, a size chart in centimetres, a clear returns policy and a payment method with buyer protection. Order early, because a shirt bought the week before a big away game will arrive the week after it.
Sizing for the terraces
Buy for layers. A shirt that fits perfectly over bare skin in the club shop will be tight over a hoodie in December. Go the size chart rather than the letter, and measure a shirt you already wear on match days. For slimmer adults, a junior extra-large from most manufacturers is cut almost identically to an adult small and costs twenty pounds less, a trick that away ends have known about for years.
Looking after it
A cheap shirt that is washed properly will outlast an expensive one that is not. Cold wash, inside out, no tumble dryer, no iron on the print. Heat is what kills a sponsor logo and turns a crest to plastic. A shirt that has survived a season of away days and still looks right in the team photo is a shirt that has been treated with more care than the fabric strictly deserves.
What not to do
Do not buy a player-issue shirt for the terraces unless you enjoy being cold. Do not buy a name and number for a player in the final year of his contract. Do not pay full price in the first month of a kit’s release, when demand is highest and discounts do not exist. And do not, whatever the design, wear the home team’s colours in the away end; the stewards will move you, and your mates will not let you forget it.
Where to buy, in order of price
Independent online retailers selling fan-version replicas are the cheapest, at £20 to £30, with the caveats above. Retro specialists and licensed reissue brands come next, usually £35 to £50. Manufacturer outlets and the sale sections of the big sports chains sell last season’s official shirts for £40 to £50 once the new kit is out. The club shop is the most expensive place to buy anything, and the day of a kit launch is the most expensive day to buy it there.
A season’s budget
Take twenty away days. A supporter who buys the current-season home and away replicas at club-shop prices spends around £170 on shirts alone, before printing. A supporter who buys one previous-season shirt in the sale and one fan-version replica online spends around £65. The difference is a return train to London, or three match tickets, or most of a hotel for the long trip to the north-east. Over a decade of following the club away, the saving is the price of a season ticket.
The shirt as a conversation
One more thing the expensive shirt does not buy. A supporter in the current kit is one of thousands. A supporter in the 1996 ecru away, or a faded 2005 Reebok, or a reissue of the 1977 Umbro, will be asked about it on the train, in the pub and in the queue at the turnstile, and the conversation is usually better than the football. Cheap, old and interesting beats new and expensive every time.
The point of all this
The away day is about the trip, the ground and the ninety minutes. The shirt is the uniform, not the event, and there is no honour in having paid ninety pounds for it. Spend the money on the train, the ticket and the pint, and find a shirt that does the job for a third of the price. For more on planning away trips, the grounds and the travel, explore LFC Day Trippers.
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